November 15, 2010

In which I refudiate “refudiate”

So the New Oxford American Dictionary folks named refudiate as their word of the year. And they seem like a smart group of people, so far be it from me to judge that decision. After all, how could we second guess this kind of psychic pre-nerd-nition? Here’s the note that opens their WOTY entry:

Okay, so yes, funny. Ha ha. Having said that, I will judge. Refudiate is a perfectly good word, and I pretty much love that it will probably follow Sarah Palin to the grave. It’s certainly better than some of the other contenders, such as bankster, top kill, and webisode. But I must insist: vuvuzela (which was given some kind of consolation runner up status) was robbed.

If you need any evidence as the awesome power and influence of vuvuzela, may I remind you?